Updates: 25 February 2019

There is always so much going on, it is amazing that I still appear to have all my stuff together. The truth be told, behind the scenes, sometimes I am an absolute disorganized mess. I have come to accept it as sometimes it is all that I can muster. Other days, I struggle to find ways to possibly try making it look more together on the back end. For the most part, it is all about appearances.

February has mostly come and gone. I am not entirely sure how it happened and I seemed to miss so much. I did not realize that I had been that busy, but I suppose I was just busy enough that the month slipped by one day at a time. Only a few more days and we will be into March. Surprise! I was not ready, but I have to accept it for what it is.

What have I accomplished?

I am not 100% certain how to articulate what I have accomplished during the month of February thus far. I am not even sure how to accurately articulate what I have accomplished thus far in 2019 as a whole. I suppose I should start to make a list so that I can see it and make it more concrete.

• I started another semester of school via the BYU-I Pathway Worldwide program. I am currently 1.5 semesters out of 3 semesters completed. This current semester ends in April. The final semester starts less than 2 weeks later. So far I have very good marks. I am not worried about the next semester.
• I have filled out, completed, and submitted two FAFSA forms for my oldest boys. Both have been received and processed for the upcoming 2019-2020 academic school year.
• I expanded my ability to take on sewing students. I have gone from 1 intermittent student up to 4 regular students. I currently have room for 2-3 more classes.
• I made the decision to cut back on manufacturing for others. I was sewing for 4 boutiques. With the demands from everything else, I have decided that turn around times are not conducive to my current scheduling needs. Too much stress.
• I physically started another fabric line. This would be another line that I am personally designing to be made available via a print on demand fabric printer. You can find out more information about the previous line at Stacey Sansom Designs. This is looking to be a very large collection so I have not decided how I am going to release it.
• Scheduled in time for more regular temple attendance.
• I have purchased another round of fabrics from my Bright Delights fabric collection. I cannot afford to purchase every single fabric outright, so I am slowly purchasing a 1-yard sample print of each fabric. I have 11 in my possession now out of the original 39. I have released 7 additional fabrics individually since then. I currently have 46 fabrics available for public purchase.
• I have been organizing my sewing/craft room a little bit at a time. I have decided that it is just not efficient for my needs. I have replaced the 2 folding plastic tables with 3 glass tables. I have put another bookcase in the room. I have cleaned out 3 banker’s boxes worth of fabrics that I am not likely to use–ever. I have also started organizing more of the fabrics so that they are easy access and I can see what I have as I work. I have also found ways to display all my different threads (serger, sewing, and quilting).
• I have paid myself directly from the business profits. As a sole-proprietor, I have less restrictions on how and what I consider payment to myself. I have always just taken “owner’s draws” in the past. I officially paid myself a small salary for the month of January. It looks like it will be a bit bigger for the month of February. Since I have been working self-employed for many years, this is a huge step up in the business world.
• I have estimated that as of today, my net income is already 45% of what I netted in 2018. My goal for 2019 was to double my net income by the end of the year. At the rate that I am going right now, I am on schedule to not only meet that, but exceed that amount.
• I have considered the possibility of producing low-content books with some of the crazy ideas in my head. These would be published using KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). This a limited option, but I think that it will be enough to get things started. I have started writing down some of the ideas that I have for this.
• I have finally started sizing the little boy rompers that I have created patterns for. Drawing up the patterns was not the problem. Sizing them correctly was what was kicking my can. I just could not visualize the size of the patterns and made up samples to figure out what the comparable “ready to wear” sizes available in your local retail stores.

What do I need to do?

It appears from the above list, that my year has been a great success. Unfortunately, for as much as I accomplished, I have just as much to still complete.

• I need to find out when I need to apply to BYU-I for this fall.
• I need to fill out and submit my own personal FAFSA for the 2019-2020 academic school year.
• I need to continue to branch out advertising for sewing students. I have 2 more class times to fill. I also need to decide if I am going to offer summer camps during the summer months.
• I need to touch base with one boutique that I sew for. I need to find out what her next expected batch of stuff to be manufactured is tentatively scheduled for.
• I need to make concentrated and focused efforts to get the design bases completed for the fabric line in the next 3-4 weeks.
• I need to make sure that the day before scheduled temple attendance time is fairly low stress to help reduce migraine likelihood in the scheduled day. I have it scheduled. I am one step in the right direction. Now I need to make sure that my over-active migraine brain does not interfere with my plans.
• I need to purchase another round of fabrics from my Bright Delights Fabric Collection. I try to purchase 4-6 fabrics each round as I have extra funds available.
• I need to set-up another checking and savings account so that I have easier access to my miserly salary payments.
• I need to download the rules and regulations from KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to find out what can and cannot be done. I also need to download the templates that help speed up production.
• I need to decide if I am going to sell the little boy rompers as “ready to wear” or just consider the samples as models for pictures and create the patterns for mass production. As much as I hate PDF patterns, there appears to be quite the market available for these patterns. I am looking into possibilities for printing patterns for mass sales.
• I need to draft patterns for other boys, teens, and men’s fashions, namely bowties and vests. I need to decide how much of these I want to produce for sale or not.
• I need to decide if I want to do pre-sales for my upcoming fabric line. I need a really good sale to make this cost effective for me.
• I need to set in stone my sewing lesson curriculum based on experiences this round of students. Which patterns to use, which worksheets to hand out, and how much fabrics and supplies to invest in up front before classes.

The list might be lengthy, but I am sure that I can accomplish a lot of this stuff in the next couple of months. I am sure that more stuff will get tacked onto the end of the list. I am just happy to be able to recognize through this process that I am not doing nearly as bad as I thought I was. I am doing okay. Life might be busy from the outside looking in, but behind the scenes life is just a whirlwind from the inside looking out.

What do you have planned for completion in the next couple of months?